Yemen Post surveyed hundreds in the countrys six main provinces asking them to grade President Abdurabu Hadi’s first year in power.
A slight step backwards was the result as Hadi’s grade was better six months ago. He did succeed in heavily limiting violence but politics and dialogue are where improvement was slim.
Hadi strongly believes Yemen needs to take baby steps forward, and moving quickly with reforms will weaken the already very fragile government.
Sadly, worries the Yemenis had a yearly still remain. Hadi would say that it could have been worse if he was not in power, and he may be right.
Thankfully, Yemen is not at war. But increasing poverty rates is drowning the country.
But Hadis biggest mistake was allowing his eldest son to strongly interfere in government matters and at times enforce his words over those of ministers. This brought back memories of the political trap son of the countrys former president fell into and angered many. The country would go nowhere as long as the same mentality remained.
Hundreds were killed outside the law over the last year. Southern Yemen is as dangerous as it ever was since 1994. Pro Zaidi militants independently govern most of northern Yemen. National dialogue was delayed for months.
The Yemeni revolution is becoming part of history.
Instead of witnessing major reforms, Yemenis witnessed the removal or a very corrupt government and replacing it with a weak one.
There is still hope and Hadi will have (at least) one more year to prove he is going in the right direction, and that is towards safety, reforms, democracy, and equality.
One year of Hadi rule, and Yemen is still a dangerous time bomb. The country is still in search for its Nelson Mandela.

Hakim Almasmari is an American journalist and Middle East expert based in Sana'a, Yemen. His work has appeared for many of the worlds top media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Washington Post, AlJazeera, Fox News, The Guardian, The National, USA Today among numerous others. He has also worked with some of the world’s top organizations. Reporting out of Yemen for nearly eight years, he is the current editor in chief for the Yemen Post. He is a university lecturer in the field of international media and also studied business and law. Considered one of the top experts on Yemen, Almasmari has closely worked with international strategic centers and think tanks helping them better understand Yemen. He is a frequent guest on many international TV outlets discussing current local and international affairs. Almasmari's ancestors are from Yemen, and was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. His mother tongue is English and is fluent in Arabic.

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